I’m as guilty of this as anyone, and ironically once found myself putting off a writing deadline while reading James Surowiecki’s article about…procrastination.

We all do it, some of us more than others, and to varying degrees of effect.

At the most basic level, David McRaney explains that procrastination occurs—is, in fact, inevitable—because now-you seeks immediate gratification and is willing to defer responsibility to future-you. Now-you orders the burger with fries, assuming that future-you will compensate by choosing a salad. The problem, of course, is that future-you becomes now-you, and the cycle continues. “In the struggle between should versus want,” McRaney writes, “[successful] people have figured out something crucial—want never goes away.”

It’s worth repeating: no matter how much willpower we exert, want never goes away. What we can do, however, is outflank it, putting safeguards in place to help circumvent our inevitable moments of weakness. Internet blocking services like…